The California Preservation
Assessment Project, managed by the California Preservation Program, is designed
to help small and mid-sized libraries and archives plan improvements in care for
their permanent and historical collections. All institutions (libraries,
archives, museums, parks, and historical societies) in California with library
and archival collections and that provide free public access are eligible to
apply. Permanent and historical collections appropriate for assessment include
books and journals, archives and manuscripts, prints and photographs, moving
images, sound recordings, architectural and cartographic records, and digital
materials.

A preservation assessment of
the collections, including scope and scale of preservation needs as well as
recommendations, is an essential first step to create a plan for enhanced
collection care. Further, preservation assessments often are a required step
preliminary to preservation grant funding. Consequently, CPAP was created to
assist California institutions plan programs and projects to meet preservation
needs of their collections.